Not long ago, if a bright young thing at a European or North American softwood company had suggested exporting to Malaysia, their boss might have suggested a sabbatical, or alternative employment. Even more so if they mooted shipping out engineered softwood construction components.
But the second Malaysian Timber Council Global WoodMart (MGW) show last week highlighted even more clearly than the first in 2010 that what were once timber trade pipe
dreams are now becoming business realities.
In a pause for breath between stand visits, it struck me that, as far as the 21st century timber trade is concerned, there’s no avoiding that cliché. It really has become a global village, and an increasingly integrated one.
It’s a while since Asian countries were simply tropical timber suppliers. They’ve long been heading down the value-added route, still exporting raw and semi-processed wood, but increasingly using their timber resource to make finished products and components. As their manufacturers looked to diversify and expand their customer base, and as their own domestic markets became more affluent, they’ve also increasingly supplemented homegrown with imported raw material.
As a result, MGW is a two-way trading street; a buying and selling opportunity alike for Asian visitors and exhibitors and their counterparts from around the world.
Among the evidence for this international dovetailing of the timber trade was a 50% increase in the number of companies in the American Hardwood Export Council’s US pavilion. One exhibitor said this was partly due to continuing depressed trading in the US and European markets, but that the American presence would have grown in any event.
There were also more companies on the French Timber group stand. These were all hardwood suppliers, there to service growing demand for temperate species from Asian manufacturers intent on expanding their product range for both western and domestic markets. But the French Timber promotional body also put on a display of softwood, for which, it said, Asian interest is also growing.
The latter trend was also underlined by show debuts from American Softwoods and Canadian giant Canfor, plus displays from Finland’s UPM and New Zealand’s Taranakipine. One exhibitor said that Asian markets still needed education about softwood’s performance in tropical climates,
but these were being overcome, with treatment specialist Lonza seeing its stand as helping the process. Further highlighting that this is the case was a Malaysian exhibitor now making European spruce glulam.
Seen by some as a potential barrier to the growing integration of the global timber sector are latest government and business procurement measures to combat the illegal wood trade, notably America’s Lacey Act and the upcoming EU Timber Regulation. So it was appropriate that the European Timber Trade Federation and European Forest Institute, in association with the Malayisan Timber Council, ran a conference on the theme in conjunction with the MGW. This highlighted fears that these otherwise praiseworthy initiatives may also obstruct the free flow of legal business. But the event underlined the consensus that globalisation of the trade was to the benefit of all, and a cross-border determination to collaborate to ensure that nothing, including anti-illegal timber measures, stands in its way.
